Increased use of bikes for commuting offers economic, health benefits

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.news.wisc.edu/19981

Increased use of bikes for commuting offers economic, health benefits

Nov. 2, 2011

by David Tenenbaum

Cutting out short auto trips and replacing them with mass transit and active transport would yield major health benefits, according to a study just published in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The biggest health benefit was due to replacing half of the short trips with bicycle trips during the warmest six months of the year, saving about $3.8 billion per year from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for conditions like obesity and heart disease.

The report calculated that these measures would save an estimated $7 billion, including 1,100 lives each year from improved air quality and increased physical fitness.

Moving five-mile round trips from cars to bikes is a win-win situation that is often ignored in discussions of transportation alternatives, says Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We talk about the cost of changing energy systems, the cost of alternative fuels, but we seldom talk about this kind of benefit," he says.

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1103440

[RufusTFirefly]

1. K and R!

Bicycle travel represents the proverbial win-win.
The more Americans who take to the streets on bicycles, the healthier we all will be.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. Unbelievable. People are un-reccing this.

Daniel Akerson, is that you?

[nichomachus]

4. Agreed -- really stupid

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Someone just un-recced this when I recced it.

How many anti-bike, anti-transit trolls are there on the enviro/transportation subforums, anyhow?

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. You’re anti-American!

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=24739

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=5917

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Some folks have pretty big blind spots when it comes to both bicycles and public transportation

And strangely enough, it isn't always a left-right thing.
I've got an ultra-conservative friend who's a big public transportation fan and know more than a few "liberals" who express contempt for bicycles and bicyclists.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. I find the same

If I ride my bicycle, or take the bus to work, people assume my car must not be working.

Recently, a bunch of us from work went to lunch “together” to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. I took the bus, they drove. We left together, and I beat them there. We returned together, and I beat them back. (Lucky timing both ways.) People could not believe it!

However, the next birthday, when I suggested taking the bus… (well, you can guess…)

---

If any form of pleasure is exhibited,
report to me and it will be prohibited!
I'll put my foot down, so shall it be…
this is the land of the free!

The last man nearly ruined this place
he didn't know what to do with it.
If you think this country's bad off now,
just wait till I get through with it!

The country's taxes must be fixed,
and I know what to do with it.
If you think you're paying too much now,
just wait till I get through with it!
— Rufus T. Firefly

[Gregorian]

8. Are you kidding. Bikes are treason!

I'm a lifelong bicycling advocate. Cars should be a tool that is seldom used. Oh fuck it. I'm wasting my time. No one who reads this is going to get it. I had to be dragged from my pickup by friends. But since that day I've been a much healthier and happier person.

What a society we COULD have.

Even most people on my bike forum don't see biking as the way to a better world. Driving hours just to go on a bike ride is the norm.

Didn't mean to post under yours. But it just seemed like the proper place.

[gristy]

5. Let's call more attention to unreccing. Maybe more people will rec it

In fact, let's talk only about recs and unrecs. The topic of the OP is much less interesting.

Who's in?